What can be said about a promotion that starts up with a bunch of cast offs from the world’s largest and has only one bonafide star?
Most would say it’ll fail. It’s out of it’s league. Maybe even it shouldn’t exist and the wrestlers should be grateful.
In AEW’s case, they’ve ignored all of those and have put on awesome show after awesome show. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but considering it was built by wrestlers for wrestlers and they listen to fans, they offer a great alternative.
With that being said, let’s get the show on the road, shall we?
The Awesome
Private Party versus the Young Bucks. This was seriously one of the best tag team matches many of us have seen in a long time. The athleticism and chemistry between the two teams was off the charts, and brought back memories of the Hardy Boys and Edge and Christian from bygone days. Private Party upsetting the Young Bucks was the perfect icing on the cake as it gives a newer team a chance to shine and frees the Young Bucks up for other rivalries.
- The Inner Circle. All week long, we’ve been asking what this group should or will be called. Even Chris Jericho and other have asked for input or thoughts on social media, and now we have our answer. Beyond a cool name, it’s indicative of Jericho and those he’s surrounded himself with, as he explained while cementing his heel status for the foreseeable future. Shots at WWE were to be expected, but when Jericho silenced the fans chanting “We the people!” with “We the people sucks, and it’s dead and buried. It was a stupid idea from bad creative and all that’s gone.” Ouch. Thank you, Chris Jericho.
- Tully Blanchard. Okay, this is purely a personal choice as it’s hard to not let out a whoot! at seeing someone we grew up watching still working in the business in someway. He even got involved in the match a little. Pretty awesome.
- Barbed wire tease. While we didn’t get to see the mayhem Kenny Omega’s idea to bring out a pair of barbed wire weapons would’ve caused, it was still pretty cool. Is it wrong the barbed wire broom looked more bad a—than the bat?
- The main event. Seriously, it’s never a bad thing when Dustin Rhodes and Chris Jericho are in the same ring, and when you add talented wrestlers like Hangman Adam Page and Sammy Guevara, it’s hard to imagine it going wrong. Though, since the AEW is reminiscent of the 90s era, it’s fair to point out that Guevara looks like the super nerd (think of David Silver and Scott Scanlon from Beverly Hills 90210′s early seasons) trying to look cool and fit in with the older cool kids.
- MJF double crosses the Inner Circle. Many will say this was obvious and predictable, but the truth is it could’ve gone either way. Given how much was invested in him claiming to be Cody Rhode’s best friend is what makes it an easy fork in the road creative wise. Given this is the beginning of the opposing factions, it’s cool that it left it open for fans to interpret where his loyalties lie. Kinda makes one curious when the final decision on what he’d do was made? Day or hours before, or on the spot?
- Seriously, this has to be one of the coolest entrance gimmicks in the history of wrestling. It wasn’t high tech or using zipwire, but just Darby Allin riding a skateboard down the ramp to attack Jericho. Nothing better than the simplest ideas, sometimes.
Final thoughts and grades
Dynamite, like WWE’s NXT, relies more on in the ring action than promos, and aside from Jericho’s promo in the ring, it largely remained true to that. By doing so, it focused our attention to the center of action instead of jumping around the arena. It helps us to know where something’s going to happen and heightens the surprise when action occurs elsewhere.
More than the presentation, the matches were top notch, with the Young Bucks and Private Party easily winning the match of the night. One concern was in the main event, Dustin Rhodes looked like he may have injured himself when Guevera went over the top rope. He soldiered on, but still looked shaking on his feet at the end. Hope he’s okay and it’s nothing serious.
In the end, Jericho’s promo, maybe the best one of his career, gave them the edge. On a scale of one to ten, they get a 9.5.
There’s plenty of room to grow, and they’re already hitting on all cylinders as they seem to have found their identity as a show. This’ll be fun going forward.
